Valentine's Coffee
by Faery14
Summary: Its Valentine's Day and all you wanted to do was your homework. But instead you run into one Ray Narvaez Jr. (Wow this is awful I'm sorry!)


_Great…another Valentine's Day alone_ , you thought as you made your way into a local Starbucks with your backpack. As you got in line to get your coffee, you continued on your train of thought. _Thank God I don't have school today. I wouldn't be able to stand all the squealing girls when their boyfriends bring them flowers._ You laughed quietly to yourself, but quickly frowned, feeling a slight emptiness in your chest. _Come on (Y/N), get it together, you don't care!_ But you did care _…_ A small wave of pain washed over your face. "Um, hello? Are you okay?" asks the barista behind the counter. You jumped slightly, not realizing you had made it to the front of the line, and quickly slid a mask of happiness over your face. You've been doing it way to frequently lately. "Oh yes, I'm fine, sorry about that." you said as your face tinted light pink with embarrassment. "Well now that you're back here with me on Earth, what would you like?" the barista asked again, a smile on his face. He had a light brown skin tone, and dark brown hair. Along with his uniform, he was wearing black thick framed glasses and a red rose earring in his left ear. _He's kind of cute, but he probably has a girlfriend or someone else,_ you thought. "A Grande caramel macchiato please?" you ask, handing him a gift card from your backpack. "Name please?" asked the barista, an amused smirk still on his face. "(Y/N)" you replied. "Well (Y/N), as long as you don't leave the planet again any time soon, this will be ready for you shortly." You laughed quietly, "Thanks, uh…" "Ray, the name's Ray" he stated. "Thanks Ray". You moved along the counter to wait for where your drink would be finished by another barista. After receiving the drink and thanking the second barista, you moved across the coffee shop to a table next to the front windows, so you could put your backpack down and begin the large amount of schoolwork residing within.

A couple hours and two more drinks later, you're almost done. You would've finished sooner had you not indulged in one of your favorite habits, people watching. You found it fascinating and somewhat amusing watching people interact and have conversations with each other. You would laugh to yourself if you heard a joke, and quietly seethe if someone was unnecessarily rude. Unfortunately, most of the time you had spent people watching today was consumed by discomfort at all the Valentines couples with extreme cases of PDA. There was even at one point a couple kissing in one of the back corners. _Seriously, of all places, why a coffee shop? I can understand a park or a movie theater, but really, a well-lit coffee shop with lots of people?_ Oh well. Now all you had to finish was some stupid short story your English teacher had assigned earlier that week. " _Write a story about love", she said. "It'll be easy", she said. Ugh._ Although you, like everyone else, wanted some sort of affection or attention, it was awkward and uncomfortable to have to put into words for your teacher to read. The way you felt about love was, well, complicated. More importantly, it was private. While you had a pretty readable face, and were basically top notch at this point at expressing emotions like happiness, excitement, frustration, and anger, you were always conflicted about showing, as well as feeling, emotions such as loneliness, jealousy, sadness, and of course, love. You didn't want people to worry about you, but you also did, because it reminded you that people cared about you. It's not like you forgot, or felt that you weren't cared about, it was just that sometimes the loneliness got to you, and it was nice to be reminded. _Well now I'm in a peppy mood. Come on, get out of this mindset._ A loud sigh escaped from you as you decided to write your train of thought instead of a story. Even though you would probably lose points later, just putting all of your thoughts on paper would not only help your own understanding, but it would be better than making something up and not putting any real emotion into it.

You made your way through almost the entire assignment, even figuring out a way to mold your conflicted thoughts into a character and comprehensible plot, but you got stuck when it came to the conclusion. Nothing really felt right. You didn't want to end on a confused or slightly depressing note, but didn't really have any leeway into a happy or even content ending. You sighed again, and laid your head down on the table, in front of your laptop. "Are you sure you're okay?" You jumped, nearly knocking the remnants of your last macchiato onto your laptop, but you quickly grabbed it and placed it back on the table, as far away from your laptop as you could put it. You looked up to see the barista from earlier. _What was his name? Oh yeah, Ray._ He was giving you an apologetic look, and rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. "Sorry about that, I didn't mean to startle you." "It's alright", you replied, "I needed a break anyway." "Well, I just ended my shift, do you care if I join you? I might be able to help." You gently laughed. "I don't know about that, but I would enjoy the company." _Why not, it could be interesting anyway._ As Ray placed his bag on the ground and sat across from you, you once again noticed the rose earring on his left ear. Intrigued, you asked him about it. "I'll tell you about it if you tell me what you've been trying to write about for the past few hours." You were about to answer when a quick thought crossed your mind. "Have you been watching me?" "N-no!" he stammered, "Well, yes…, but only glances! I swear!" You cracked a smile and genuinely laughed, amused at how red his face was getting. "It's okay! At least you're honest about it." "…So will you tell me what you're writing about?" Ray tried one more time. "No!" You argued for a while until you finally gave in, and told Ray of your dilemma of how to put an ending on your short story. "Ouch, that sucks! Either you're teacher is way too interested in your personal lives, or she needs one of her own!" "Hey, don't be too harsh! She's a nice lady, sometimes she just gets a little…weird." Ray put his hands up, "Fair enough. Now since you held up your end of the bargain, I'll hold up mine." His eyes lit up as he began his story. "When I was a kid, my mom and I liked to grow roses in our back yard. My mother loved roses, and the history and culture behind them. She believed that roses were the pinnacle of love and affection, familial or romantic, so she would always cut a few of them and give them to her family members and friends. Well…" Here Ray's eyes lost a bit of their glimmer. "My mom passed away when I was just about to enter high school. I was devastated, my mom was the most important person in my life, and I couldn't comprehend that she wouldn't be there to help me through the next phase of it." You looked at Ray with sympathy, "I am so sorry, I wouldn't have asked if I had known it would be so painful". "It's alright, really. I'm okay. Plus I haven't even answered your question yet! So, a few years passed, and unfortunately I wasn't able to keep up with the rose garden. High school was so much more demanding, and I wanted to make sure I did my mother proud by doing well. So, in my senior year when I turned 18, I decided to get my ear pierced. I spent weeks trying to find an earring that would be just right. One that honored the time we spend together, and one that I would continually enjoy. After the longest time, I finally came across this one. It was perfect, and looked exactly like the roses my mother and I had grown. It made me happy, knowing I had this memento of her, reminding me that she will always be with me." Ray slowly look back towards you with a small smile. "So yeah, that's the story of the rose earring." You smiled back, "That's a really sweet story, I'm glad you told it to me."

You and Ray continued to sit across from each other and just talk. You talked about your likes, dislikes, your interests, and your dreams. You didn't realize that it was late until one of Ray's co-workers came over to tell him they were closing soon. Ray laughed, "Wow, time really flies when you're having fun, doesn't it?" You joined in, "Yeah, it does! Well, unfortunately I have to get going, it's pretty dark out and I don't want my parents getting worried about me. Thanks for hanging out with me though, I really enjoyed it." "No problem, I had a blast talking to you!" You went and threw your coffee cup out then came back to the table to grab your laptop. "It was really nice meeting you Ray, I hope I can see you again soon!" You turned and walked towards the door as you and Ray waved goodbye to each other, but was stopped by Ray calling your name. "Hey (Y/N), wait! Don't forget your backpack! He ran up to you and handed you the backpack. "Oh my god thank you! I would've been a mess if I'd left it here! I wasn't even thinking about it." Ray laughed, holding it while you quickly placed your laptop inside. "You're welcome! I'll see you later then?" You turned back towards the door, looking back over your shoulder, "Yeah, I'll definitely come back sometime soon!"

When you got home, you put your backpack on your bed and went to sit down at your desk when you gasped, suddenly realizing you still didn't have an ending for your story. You made your way back over to your backpack and opened it, reaching your hand inside to pull your laptop back out when you saw something that stopped you. Right there on top of your other books was a folded slip of paper, and pierced through it was none other than Ray's red rose earring. Your eyes widened and a small smile crossed your lips. _That boy is something else, but I guess I'll be seeing him sooner than I thought._ Still smiling, you pulled the earring and paper out and placed it on your desk before finally getting your laptop. Thanks to Ray, you finally had the perfect ending.


End file.
